[morri2]

Hi All!  A neighbour of mind has had her Heb ewes sheared for the first time this year.  She has asked me if I know of anyone interested in buying any of them.  Most are lamb fleeces and lovely and soft, but I've not a clue how much they are worth.  can anyone help??

[Lesley Silvester]

Probably not very much.  When my ex OH and I had a spinning and weaving workshop in Scotland (eighteen years ago) we could buy good fleeces for just a few pounds and I doubt if they've gone up much in that time.  the best thing to do is Google fleeces for sale and check some prices.

[Fleecewife]

How much they are worth depends very much on the quality of each fleece, how well they have been stored and how well prepared they are.  There is a bit on my website about assessing a fleece which might be helpful.

Handshorn fleeces are usually better for working with as they are cut through the rise, whereas machine fleeces may have been shorn closer to the skin and include some of the new growth - this forms very annoying noils on processing.

For a first shear, clean, uncotted, skirted and well presented fleece, your neighbour could ask up to £10 each. She is better not to sell poor quality fleeces as they simply refect badly on the seller and your customers don't come back the next year.

I think it very important not to sell fleeces too cheaply - the message you are sending is that they are relatively worthless whereas in fact wool in all its forms is a magical product which will come back into its own soon, with rising oil prices (oil is used in the manufacture of most man-made fibres, it is used to make fertilisers for growing cotton, and to power processing machinery and transport.  Wool is renewable as a sort of by-product of meat production, and needs very low oil inputs in its production and processing.  In addition, wearing woollen clothing, using wool around the house in bedding and carpets, reduces the amount of oil needed for heating)

[morri2]

think it very important not to sell fleeces too cheaply - the message you are sending is that they are relatively worthless whereas in fact wool in all its forms is a magical product which will come back into its own soon,

Definitely agree with that!!  I don't have any difficulty selling my Bowmont fleeces for good prices at the moment, and I think this market is going to spread to other breeds of sheep with good fleeces, especially given the recent upsurge of interest in crafts - I've been bitten by the bug too!  As you say Fleecewife, other man-made commodities are going to be in short supply very soon and what could be better than home produced wool to replace them.

I'd thought around £10 each for the fleeces would be a fair price too, although I've not seen them yet. I've offered to skirt and sort if necessary so should manage to get rid of a few of them for her.

Thanks guys. 

[Maesgwyn]

Over the past year I have been working on a blanket made up of rare and traditional breeds, it won reserve in show at Singleton even though it was not finished!!! I am still working on it and Heb was one of the fleeces I needed, I was given some at the guild recently and it is double coated, the under coat is quite soft and the over is long and straight. i am not sure if this is normal for this breed but am spinning it all together but have thought of spinning the two separately, make two squares and add them to the blanket, each square is labelled and hopefully will be on the Ceridigion Guild stand at Wonderwool next year. The idea was to show the public just how many different fleeces there are and also the differences in colour. At Singlet on I had a separate table with a poster of the sheep and skeins of yarn for people to touch, I noticed even the spinners were interested as there is a huge variety

[Lesley Silvester]

I hope people do get decent prices for their fleeces.  I think we were paying about £5 each for milk sheep which are huge fleeces with long staple length.  The wool marketing board were offering about half that so the farmer was happy to ring us when he'd finished shearing and let us take our pick.

[Fleecewife]

Over the past year I have been working on a blanket made up of rare and traditional breeds, it won reserve in show at Singleton even though it was not finished!!! I am still working on it and Heb was one of the fleeces I needed, I was given some at the guild recently and it is double coated, the under coat is quite soft and the over is long and straight. i am not sure if this is normal for this breed but am spinning it all together but have thought of spinning the two separately, make two squares and add them to the blanket, each square is labelled and hopefully will be on the Ceridigion Guild stand at Wonderwool next year. The idea was to show the public just how many different fleeces there are and also the differences in colour. At Singlet on I had a separate table with a poster of the sheep and skeins of yarn for people to touch, I noticed even the spinners were interested as there is a huge variety

It sounds lovely maesgwyn and very educational.  Well done with reserve at Singleton 

Yes, Hebridean is a double coated sheep.  The top coat should have about 2 crimps (although they are not really crimps but waves) per inch.  It is easy but a bit tiresome separating out the top and under coats but as you have found they are totally different.  The top coat on its own is usually used for weaving.  There is a research paper (pilot study) on my website about the properties of Hebridean fleece - it has to be downloaded.